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Monday, November 9, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell resigned today after coming under intense fire with the Black Management Forum (BMF) over his handling of the purported resignation of the utility's CEO, Jacob Maroga, which the BMF claimed was never made.

In fact, the BMF challenged Godsell and the board to provide evidence of Maroga's resignation and said that Godsell was pursuing a "personal nefarious agenda" by trying to dislodge the power group's CEO.

Similarly, renewed pressure was placed on Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan, with the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, Vytjie Mentor, saying that Hogan would be called before the committee "in due course to explain why Maroga has resigned".

This would be yet another high-profile summonsing of the Minister, who was called into Parliament not so long ago to explain whether the suspension by the board of freight rail Transnet's CEO, Siyabonga Gama, had anything to do with succession battles.

Alstom Hydro, the joint venture between power generation supplier Alstom and civil engineering group Bouygues, has reported that it has been awarded a contract with Namibian State-owned power utility, NamPower, for the supply of electro-mechanical equipment and penstocks for a new 92 MW turbine-generator unit, at the Ruacana power plant, in Namibia.

The contract, which was awarded to Alstom Hydro and its consortium partner Andritz Hydro, was estimated to be worth around 16-million-Euro.

The Ruacana power plant is located on the Kunene river on the border of Angola and is NamPower's largest power plant, accounting for some 80% of Namibia's annual electricity production. This new unit, which would serve as the main operating unit, would supply clean energy to the Namibian electricity network.

Also making headlines:

A R28-billion property development is unveiled near George, in the Western Cape.
Britain urges the divided G20 to reach a climate deal.
The Renewable Energy Market Transformation unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa calls for consultants to revise the Energy White Paper.
And, South Africa has the potential to become a more significant oil and gas producer, with a new petroleum act paving the way for more exploration.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.